Romana

Today is a sad day - 23 May 2013 - a year since my beautiful mother was taken from us. But she will live on forever in our hearts and in the halls of Hanworth House, which is being restored in her honour.

This post is a tribute to Mamma HH - someone everyone loved and who touched your life from the moment you met her. Maybe Mary Weinholt felt the same way 100 years ago when she bought Hanworth House in honour of her mother.

This is the story of my mother.

Romana Gabrielli's story began in 1938 in Pula, Italy. These were formative years of great hardship, war, little food, no money and maybe then, little hope. A young family was displaced from its tenuous and insecure first home, searching freedom and a better life by passaging through several United Nations refugee camps, simultaneously glued by a great will to stay together as a family.

A long voyage, stark of comfort, brought this young family to Australia- we remember her story of the first time she saw a banana as she travelled via Africa, longing for a taste, yet no one had any money to buy one. Arriving in Australia in 1950 with her brother and parents, accompanied by a few possessions in ragged cardboard suitcases, bewildered by expectation and hope.  Yet she immediately set to the task of making good a new life, and that she certainly did.

Educated at St Stephens’ School in Brisbane, she shone with merit in many fields. Her talent in art even gained the eye of future iconic artist Margaret Olley, who offered her tutorage, but circumstances prevented her from following this opportunity at the time.

My favourite glass and oil painting by mum

Through her adolescence and early adulthood, Romana continued to take great care of her wonderful mother (my still bike-riding, lawn mowing 98 year old Nonna) who remains full of life and completely and uniquely irreplaceable. On so many occasions, she spent long afternoons and evenings working with her mother at the National hotel in Queen St, gladly and selflessly helping her mother with her work. In fact both mother (and later her mother in law) were very significant to her.

Romana could have been anything she wanted:  she was smart, logical, industrious, convincing, and, sometimes downright conniving. She was stubborn too! Her abilities and people skills gained her employment easily, including the Queensland Catering Company,  Electric Power Transmission and the Italian consulate in Brisbane (where she was constantly dismayed by the antics of the diplomats!)

Romana was quite the 1950s glamour girl though she would  have been horrified to have been described as such - behold these gorgeous shots :

  

Getting ready to go to Cloudland in 1950s

Coolangatta Beach

Romana married John Preston in 1960, and surely remains on the short list for the most beautiful and radiant bride there ever was or will be, She made her own dress and that of her bridesmaids and it was evident her creative streak was continuing into dressmaking.

 

Reception at the Bellevue Hotel August 1960

Was it coincidence (or fate?) that the 3 landmarks (National Hotel, Bellevue Hotel and Cloudland) - all demolished landmarks in Brisbane were each mentioned in the article written about Hanworth House after the fire

Read the Courier Mail article here

And you can see evidence of these three places in the photos and stories above. What does this mean?

I came along a few years later - being quite the cutest baby that ever lived (maybe a little biased!)

Here are both of us revelling in the opportunity to be a mum. Motherhood was Romana's most masterful talent. My brother followed a year after I did.

Not content with art and dressmaking, Romana made another mark as an extremely talented cook early on, winning the 1967 national White Wings Womens Weekly Bake Off Competition and gaining national acclaim.

Just look at those hairstyles - Mad Men would be so proud!   For a short time, she even hosted a television cooking show in Brisbane, which could have led to a highly successful career, but her love and care of two young children took precedence at that time, and she never looked back

Mamma HH  became an incredible dressmaker, winning the praise and admiration of many, and a  host of prizes and awards for her designs and outfits.  

 

I remember us clapping and cheering so loudly at Twin Towns in the late 1980’s when she  won the supreme award as Dressmaker of the Year, one of many accolades she so well deserved. 

Mamma HH filled our house, with art and handicrafts of varied style and presence, which dance with vibrant colours of her past, present and future. What she could not make simply did not exist!

 

My father was a police sergeant in the Queensland Police force (incidentally Hanworth House was built the same year the Qld Police Force was established) and was transferred to Cooloongatta in the early 1970s, moving the family of 4 soon after to Banora Point.

 

Mamma HH nurtured a wonderful warm home, where countless special memories were created and harboured. She gained employment as a legal then school secretary at Banora Point Primary School where she remained for over 25 years.

Then, well past her 60s, when most of her peers were contemplating retirement, Mamma HH decided  a career in real estate was the way to go, simultaneously helping my brother build his business whilst carving out a reputation for honesty and genuine care unequalled in this community. She continued to work full time until she died in her early 70s.

Grandchildren came, first Miss HH and then much later grandsons whom Mamma HH loved and nurtured since their births. They will further ensure her breaths continue to inhabit our world.

And, almost 9 months after she died, a beautiful baby girl again, a constant reminder of new life - Niece HH who would have thrilled and fascinated Mamma HH to no end

My mother was the most beautiful person ever - selfless, kindhearted, hardworking, generous and loving . And did I say stubborn? She taught me lessons one can never learn in books – she never shaped my future only supported my choices.

My wedding preparation was nothing short of unfathomable. She made hundreds and hundreds of roses to adorn the church

But she also handpainted every cake box and hymn book, crocheted (when she had never crocheted before!) every bomboniere, and made the bridal dress, 4 bridesmaid dresses, her outfit and that of her mother and even all the lingerie and shoes when we could find none which would measure up to her high and exacting standards.

Mamma HH was the perfect embodiment of what a daughter, sister, wife, grandmother and mother should be.  If you met her once you could never let her go.  

On the night before her celebration of life, my schoolfriend and I cut every rose from those hundreds she made for my wedding to give to those who attended her funeral.

It was little wonder we had none left on that day.  How lucky was I to have her in my blessed life?

Hanworth House deserves to be restored, despite any obstacle placed in our way. Ovarian cancer tried to keep her down - but she fought it bravely and decisively until she could no more.  She would tell me not to let a fire at Hanworth keep me down - and it won't so long as I use her as my guiding light. Hanworth House is of the stature that only a home which is a Grand Lady and a mother who is a Grand Lady can attest. Bringing them together is my privilege.

x HH
Forever rest in peace, my darling Mamma HH

        9/11/1938 - 23/5/2012

To watch the video of Romana - A Beautiful Life click here